Marcellus and Local Rights: A Letter to All WV County Commissioners

At our meeting last night (8/16), we voted unanimously to send the following letter to all West Virginia county commissioners:

Dear Fellow Commissioner,

I am David Fleming, president of the Pocahontas County Commission. I and my fellow Pocahontas County Commissioners Martin Saffer and Jamie Walker are writing to you regarding Marcellus Shale drilling. In our county, a great number of our citizens are reaching out to us with their concerns surrounding the processes of drilling into the Marcellus formation. These concerns as expressed to us include high water usage requirements, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing and groundwater contamination, forest fragmentation, methane infiltration, and radioactivity of resurgent or recycled fracking fluids. In addition to these environmental concerns, citizens are also sharing with us concerns over increased industrial truck traffic, 24/7 drilling noise and lights, impositions by drilling companies upon landowners' surface rights, and the overarching realities of how this drilling enterprise affects the character of local communities in irreversible ways.

Many of us commissioners readily see the economic benefits that accompany the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus formation. Increased tax revenues and job creation among others. At the same time, many of us are learning of the negative aspects of the enterprise, such as those mentioned above.

For Pocahontas County specifically, the majority of our residents obtain their water from private wells. Also, as "The Birthplace of Rivers," our citizenry takes great pride in the value of being the headwaters of eight rivers. For reasons such as these, our people are looking to us, the Pocahontas County Commission, to assert our local right to decide on the presence of Marcellus Shale drilling activity in our county.

We write to you not for the purpose of encouraging you to prevent such activity in your county, but rather to encourage you, as the local leadership of your citizenry, to assert your peoples' right to decide on this issue - either for or against - at the county level.

An important ally in matters affecting county commissions is the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia (CCAWV). The CCAWV works with our state legislators in protecting the roles and rights of the county commissions across our state. We ask you to contact Vivian Parsons, executive director of the CCAWV, and talk with her regarding the need and right of your county commission to make local decisions on the matter of Marcellus Shale drilling. Ms. Parsons can be reached by phone at 304-345-4639, by email at vivian@ccawv.org, or by mail at 2309 Washington Street, East Charleston, WV 25311.

In addition to the CCAWV, please talk with your elected state senators and delegates to assert your county's rights on this issue.

The growth in Marcellus Shale and related resources production brings much to bear upon each county. The economic benefits might be something your people decide they need. The environmental impacts and community-altering realities might be something your people decide they cannot afford. Either way, we want Pocahontas County to have the right to decide for itself. We want your county to have that same right.

Respectfully your colleagues,

David M. Fleming, President
Pocahontas County Commission

Martin V. Saffer, Commissioner

Jamie C. Walker, Commissioner

To Higher Ground: Thanks for the acknowledgment of our Commission efforts. I have found that leadership on difficult issues like drilling is only as good as the depth of community support behind you.